This isn’t going to end well for Glenn or the Redblacks. In a recent post, I discussed how I thought that the “hacking” incident had been blown out of proportion but clearly I was wrong. By publicly confirming that he has indeed asked for a trade Glenn has tied Desjardins hands.

@qterback5 Kevin Glenn’s only been in town a few months but he’s showing his local hockey knowledge by pulling a Heatley #REDBLACKS#Sens

If it wasn’t already, any trade that Desjardins pulls off now will give the Redblacks an extremely diminished return. Teams know he wants out and will bank on the fact that the Redblacks won’t want to keep a disgruntled player in the locker room.

That being said, going public could backfire on Glenn because in the end the Redblacks don’t have to trade him. And even if Glenn is traded, it’s not a lock that he’ll start anywhere else. Pretty well every team has an established starter, so in all likelihood Glenn will remain a back-up wherever he goes.

“Put it this way, we are not going to release him,” Desjardins said. “We have to be smart and put ourselves in the best position depth-wise at the quarterback position and that’s what we’ve done.”

If the Redblacks gamble and feel like the other veterans can keep Glenn’s discontent from dividing the locker room, they could choose to do nothing and wait. Glenn’s contract is very cap-friendly and based on playing time, so even though Burris is getting big money, the Redblacks won’t have a problem carrying the two of them into the season. If last season was any indication, a team’s starter will go down to injury and Desjardins could chose to move Glenn at that time, for a better return.

It’ll be very interesting to see how Desjardins and the Redblacks play this, but one thing’s for sure: the Redblacks don’t need this kind of distraction going into their inaugural season. The Redblacks have done pretty much everything right since they’ve entered the league and this is exactly the kind of bad publicity that the new ownership group has taken pains to avoid.

“I need to do what’s in the best interest of our football team,” Desjardins said, “We’ve reached out to a few teams but at this point it’s certainly premature to say anything would actually happen.”

Would you trade Glenn now for the best offer or force him to report to training camp? If I’m Desjardins, I wait. Glenn created this mess all on his own. If I don’t get a good offer, I sit on my asset until I get a proper return.

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3 thoughts on “Kevin Glenn (officially) wants out”

If I’m Desjardins, I name my price and wait for the phone to ring. The inmate won’t run this asylum and set a terrible precedent.

If Glenn wants to be a distraction in camp, he may want to consider might image that will give to future potential employers.

If he fail to report to camp, I fine him to every extent that I can.

At the end of the day, this was a guy that was projected to be a back up and picked up off a list of players his previous team was willing to part with. None of that screams “commitment” from the REDBLACKS and it’s not Ottawa responsibility to make up for the perceived lack of respect in his career to this point.

Dude has a hard time keeping a starting job despite decent numbers and I’m starting to wonder if personality isn’t a big reason why.

Lots of good points, JF. Must say I agree with most of them, too. Being the first pick in an expansion draft can’t be seen as a promise of anything. And with seemingly all starting jobs already filled, Glenn’s best bet is probably in Ottawa, where the starter is 39 years old.

The only problem I have with how Redblacks management dealt with all this was how they went out of their way to name Burris their ‘starting’ QB. I’m sure it went without saying to everyone anyway, but probably Glenn took it to mean he had no chance to start. I’m not even sure that’s true, but that’s how it was taken.